A utility audit is a risk-free way of reducing utility expenses for your business with no upfront cost. Many people hear the phrase ‘utility audit’ and assume it’s about auditing utility usage and saving money through lowering consumption. But this is a misconception. Utility audits are about finding errors in the billing process itself. These errors can result in significantly bloated costs, so finding them can result in an overall utility expense reduction. In this post, we’ll explain what utility audits are, discuss how they can help lower your expenses, and give you an idea of how you’ll be able to reduce your utility costs with a utility audit. 

What Is a Utility Audit?

The utility companies that serve you have little interest in ensuring that you are paying as little as possible. Even if these companies were altruistic and wanted everyone to have the best deal, utilities serve a massive number of people. Verifying the accuracy and applicability of the billing for each customer is beyond the scope of what they can do. That leaves it up to you to ensure your bill contains no errors.

That’s where utility audits come in. It isn’t uncommon to find that a larger business isn’t getting the discounted rate they should be getting for the amount of services they use. There are often hidden items added to bills of any business, big or small, that can be eliminated with no negative side effects. Human error, such as faulty meter readings, and equipment failures can result in overcharging, as well. 

How Utility Audits Save Money

The purpose of a utility audit is to thoroughly examine every aspect of the utility bill processing from the utility companies your business works with. This type of utility bill audit will find all those hidden line items, missed rate discounts, and errors caused by both machines and humans. In doing so, they can reveal a substantial amount of money being wasted on utility expenses.

Utility audits are purely a service to help you find such waste and reduce it. When you get an audit, your auditor won’t be trying to sell you some energy-efficient appliance or get you to switch to a different utility provider. Nor does finding your utility expense reduction require any on-site work. This means you won’t have to worry about pushy salespeople or disruptions to your business. 

How Much Can You Save?

Before we talk about how much you can save, it’s important to note just how likely it is that there are errors in your utility billing. Most people assume that their utility bills are accurate and that errors are rare. However, that is not the case. In fact, we find that around 80% of all businesses we audit have some kind of error in their utility bill processing. Correcting these errors often results in substantial utility expense reduction for the affected business.

So, how much can a utility bill audit save you? That’s a bit like asking how long a piece of string is. So it’s important to understand that there are no guarantees that you’ll save anything. If your business is one of the lucky 20% that has no utility errors, then you won’t save any money. But you’ll gain a little peace of mind. 

If your business is in the 80% that do have problems, however, there’s a very high likelihood that you’ll save at least 5% by finding them and correcting them. The average utility expense reduction of those businesses with errors comes in somewhere between 15-20%. In extreme cases, where several errors are found or the error is significant, companies can save 50% or more on their utility bills. 

If you want some concrete numbers, you can visit our results page and look for a business similar to yours. For example, Coastal Foods was refunded $83k in overcharges from their electric company. American Tubing, Inc. saved approximately $1,400 per month on their utilities. You’ll find plenty of other examples from a wide range of industries.

See Your Reduction

Right now, you know that your business can save somewhere between 0% and 50% — or more. But this isn’t a very helpful range. Our utility bill auditing service will help you find out exactly how much you are overpaying for utilities. We can go over your electric, water, and sewage bills, as well as most commercial fuel bills. After assessing your past payments, contracts, agreements, and document history, we’ll ensure you’re paying as little as possible.

One of the best things about getting a utility bill audit from us is that there are no upfront costs. Utility audits are a performance-based service, so you’ll only have to worry about paying money if you save money. This gives you assurances, both that you’re not wasting money and that we’ll work as hard as possible to save you as much as possible.